How to Set A Self-Timer (for Camera) in iPhone/iPad on iOS 8

Apple introduced a conspicuously-missing feature in iOS 8: self-timer for camera. This particular feature was missing so badly that we have had people downloading third-party apps and boycotting the stock camera app just to use a self-timer.

Well, that feature is finally a part of iOS 8 now. The stock camera app ships with the camera timer.

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Here's how to set a self-timer in the camera app in iOS 8 on iPhone & iPad:

Open the Camera app (Self-timer is available for Photo and Square mode only (not for video or Time-lapse))

Tap on the timer icon near the shutter. On the iPad, the timer icon is above the shutter, near the HDR option.

When you tap, you get three options: no timer, 3s timer, 10s timer. (would have been great if you could enter an arbitrary amount for the timer)

Tap on the timer value to enable the self-timer.

Test the timer by tapping on the shutter. You should see a countdown on the screen before the shutter clicks. (Unfortunately, there is no sound indication for the countdown.)

I feel that a self-timer is a compulsory feature in every app that functions as a camera. It took Apple so long to implement this in iOS. And the implementation, by the way, is not as good as you'd expect. As noted above, there are only two values you can pick from: a 3 second shutter and a 10 second shutter. (But I'll admit that they picked the two really popular values.)

The other complaint is the lack of an audio countdown indication. Set a 10-s timer and you're left guessing when the timer will hit 0 and the shutter click.

Having said all this, iOS 8 is in beta at the time of writing this. Hope that they fix this minor feature.